Funeral Bells
by Childhood Aspirations
Summary: Why does it always rain at funerals? Matsuda and Aizawa attend Light Yagami's memorial service with mixed feelings. Hopefully no one will ever discover the secret that the investigation team plans to take to their own graves. ONESHOT post end of series


A/N- Another _Death Note _oneshot. Seems to be the only thing I can come up with... This is post the end of the anime series; I don't know if things turned out different in the manga, so the anime's the version I'm going on. Hope you enjoy!

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**Funeral Bells**

_By Childhood Aspirations_

Disclaimer: I don't own _Death Note_. Easy enough to tell.

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"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We are gathered here today in memory of a friend, a brother, a son, an advocate of justice. Though his body remains on this earth, let his soul ascend to peace…"

Matsuda shifted uncomfortably, adjusting the collar of his white button-up shirt. "It feels so wrong," he murmured to the older man standing next to him. "It's like…it's like I can't even believe that he's really dead, or that he was-" The young agent stopped himself and glanced to his left. A little ways away from him, a middle-aged woman stood weeping softly, her hands held up to her face. There was a girl in a wheelchair next to her, staring blankly at the coffin while tears slipped silently down her pale face. "It just feels wrong," Matsuda finished helplessly.

His companion grimaced, staring straight ahead. "I know," he returned in a low voice. "But this is how things are, and we can't change it. One thing we can be thankful for is that Chief Yagami didn't live to see this day."

Matsuda smothered a gasp of shock. "Aizawa, that's a terrible thing to be thankful for!" he whispered in protest. The older agent glared at him.

"Think about it, Matsuda. If Chief Yagami was alive, he would have been with us in that warehouse, and then he would have discovered the truth. I don't know what that would have done to him, knowing that his son…" This time it was Aizawa who cast the grieving family members a sideways glance. "It's better this way," he said firmly.

There was silence for a few moments while the minister droned on and on; finally Matsuda spoke again. "What about the cover-up?" he ventured, making his voice even softer. "Do you think we did right in keeping it a secret that Light was Kira?"

Aizawa shot the younger man a furious glance. "Don't talk about that here!" he hissed softly. Observing his fellow agent's crestfallen and ashamed face, Aizawa sighed wearily. "I don't know what to think about that. A part of me wants everyone to know, just because of all the terrible things he did, but…" He nodded his head toward Sachiko Yagami and her daughter Sayu. "When I look at them, I want to keep it a secret forever."

"It would be horrible if they knew," Matsuda agreed. "So maybe it is better this way."

"Amen," the minister intoned, and the funeral guests echoed him. _Amen_.

"He's gone; nothing can change that, just like nothing can change what kind of life he led," Aizawa said stonily, buttoning his coat as it began to rain. "And that's the end of it."

"Yeah." The younger one glanced up at the cloudy sky. "You know, if there is a God, he has a strange sense of humor. I think I remember it raining the day that Ryuuzaki died, and now look at this…"

The absent-minded comment was directed more at himself than at his companion; if Aizawa heard it, he gave no indication that he had. The two agents made their way through the flow of those departing to their cars and left, going in separate directions.

The minister went home. A mother and a daughter attempted to say goodbye to their son and brother. They left too, finally, weeping together. It wasn't until everyone was gone that the random passer-by might notice that everyone _wasn't_ actually gone. When the cemetery became silent- eerily so- beneath the gently falling rain, there remained one final visitor to the fresh grave.

Yellow blonde hair peeked out from beneath a wide-brimmed black hat, complete with a black flower attached to the satin band. Black coat, black dress barely visible under its hem, and black leather boots climbing past bare calves. Clutched in one gloved hand was a single red rose.

Misa stared at the grave, voices ringing in her ears.

"_Do you think we did right in keeping it a secret that Light was Kira?" _

"_A part of me wants everyone to know, just because of all the horrible things he did…"_

"_So maybe it is better this way."_

"_He's gone; nothing can change that…" _

She stepped forward unconsciously, closer to the newly-erected tombstone. The inscription was simple.

_Light Yagami_

_Investigator, Friend, Brother, Son_

_He Shall Be Missed_

"Oh, Light," she murmured brokenly, placing her single rose at the head of the grave. "Why did you have to leave me…?" Straightening, she reached into her purse and drew out a small, black notebook. _Death Note_. "But I remember now. Thank you for everything, Light. I promise I'll make you proud of me."

Figure resolute, the blonde turned away from her lover's final resting place and left the empty cemetery. Rain fell on the grave's headstone, a cleansing baptism in death.

Somewhere in the distance, a bell tolled.

"_I hear the bell… Yes, the sound of the bell has been unusually loud today… I wonder if it's a church, maybe a wedding, or perhaps a…" _

"_What are you getting at, Ryuuzaki? Come on, cut it out. Let's get back inside." _

"_I'm sorry…nothing I say makes any sense anyway. If I were you, I wouldn't believe any of it."_

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A/N- The quotes at the very end there were L and Light talking during a rainstorm in episode 25, just to be clear: they don't belong to me. And I have no idea how Misa would have ended up with the notebook after all of that. It's probably not possible, but I thought it was a decent little unexplainable hook at the end. Anyway...hope it was good! Please review! -C.A.


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